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A gift of life, laughter

In Mauritania, water says it all

Three villages — a source of life in Mauritania — now have three wells, a source of hope. In this northwest African country, clean, drinkable water is a scarce commodity.

Life is better for Awa Diallo and her six children since Lutherans provided their village, Weedou Mbaba, with a new well — a permanent source of clean water.

Every morning Awa Diallo wakes quite early to draw water from one of the new wells. The Lutheran World Federation dug the wells in Weedou Mbaba, Ferouga and Bellel Koylé after receiving an unexpected additional grant of $50,000 from the ELCA in 2008. The wells run deep — 181 feet — and the water is sweet, soft and good to drink.

Diallo lives in Weedou Mbaba (the lake of the donkey), a village populated by returnees who lived as refugees in Senegal for two decades during a border dispute between the two countries. For people living here, water is a source of life, peace and conflict wherever it is scarce.